Origins & Early Life

Martin Lewis Perl (June 24, 1927 – September 30, 2014) was an American chemical engineer and physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1995 for his discovery of the tau lepton. Perl was born in New York City, New York. His parents, Fay (née Resenthal), a secretary and bookkeeper, and Oscar Perl, a stationery salesman who founded a printing and advertising company, were Jewish immigrants to the US from the Polish area of Russia. Perl was a 1948 chemical engineering graduate of Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (now known as NYU-Tandon) in Brooklyn.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

After graduation, Perl worked for the General Electric Company, as a chemical engineer in a factory producing electron vacuum tubes. To learn about how the electron tubes worked, Perl signed up for courses in atomic physics and advanced calculus at Union College in Schenectady, New York, which led to his growing interest in physics, and eventually to becoming a graduate student in physics in 1950. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1955, where his thesis advisor was I.I. Rabi.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

Perl's thesis described measurements of the nuclear quadrupole moment of sodium, using the atomic beam resonance method that...

Contemporary Figures & Related Historical Timelines

• Al Martino — Contemporary (Born in 1927) (1927): Iconic Italian-American crooner, celebrated for standards and his role in The Godfather.
• Antônio Carlos Jobim — Contemporary (Born in 1927) (1927): Pioneering composer of Bossa Nova, merging samba with cool jazz.
• B. V. Doshi — Contemporary (Born in 1927) (1927): Pioneering Indian architect celebrated for modernist and brutalist design.
• 2014 League of Legends World Championship — Contemporary (Born in 2014) (2014): The 4th League of Legends World Championship, held in Asia in 2014.
• Alain Resnais — Contemporary (Died in 2014) (2014): Pioneering French filmmaker exploring memory, consciousness, and narrative structure.
• Alexander Grothendieck — Contemporary (Died in 2014) (2014): Pioneering figure in modern algebraic geometry and category theory.
• 6lack — Shared historical date (06-24 · Born) (1992): American R&B singer, songwriter, and rapper known professionally as 6lack.
• Ambrose Bierce — Shared historical date (06-24 · Born) (1842): Influential American author, journalist, and satirist known for dark fiction.
• Abd al-Rahman I — Shared historical date (09-30 · Died) (788): Founder of the Umayyad Emirate of Córdoba, establishing a lasting dynasty in al-Andalus.
• Death of James Dean — Shared historical date (09-30 · Died) (1955): Iconic American actor whose untimely death cemented his legendary status.
• 1927 Historical Timeline & Archive — Explore world events and figures from 1927
• June 24 (06-24) On This Day — Historical birthdays and events on June 24
• 2014 Historical Timeline & Archive — Explore world events and figures from 2014
• September 30 (09-30) On This Day — Historical events and memorials on September 30